Cdk5 inhibition with scCdk5mir astrocytes (Becerra-Calixto and Cardona-Gomez, 2017), Cdk5 RNAi-based therapy (Munoz-Manco et al., 2018) or transplanted with PTPN21 (Cui et al., 2017) also confers neuroprotection in ischemic stroke. Here, CDK5 is linked to ischemic stroke.